


Sins of the Father

by zarabithia



Category: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Justice Lords Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-03
Updated: 2006-07-03
Packaged: 2019-04-06 23:41:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14068134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: Choosing between your father figure and your soul mate sucks.





	1. Chapter 1

He should be proud.  
  
The mantra keeps repeating itself in Dick's head as Roy hesitates. Because, as Dick watches Roy weigh their relations- _former_ friendship - against what logic must be telling the archer, Dick is acutely aware that Bruce didn't _have_ to choose him for this mission. For that matter, Bruce didn't have to choose Dick to stay by his side.  
  
Just like Bruce _hadn't_ chosen to keep Tim at his side.  
  
Dick tries to to be proud. But his sense of accomplishment at being _good enough_ to be chosen. . . wanted. . . _needed_ by Batman is tempered by the look of distrust on Roy's face. It's an unfamiliar look from his fellow. . . _former_ fellow Titan. Dick doesn't want to look at that face, but the body language Bruce had drilled into him for this mission forces him to watch that face. It would be far easier to let his gaze drop six inches to Roy's bow and the arrow pointing directly at Nightwing's chest. But he doesn't want to let Batman down.  
  
"You don't believe me," Dick accuses. He focuses - just like he'd practiced with Batgirl. . . Babs. . . Barbara. . . _Oracle_ to make his voice sound just right. It needs to be be the perfect mixture of remorse, grief, and disappointment with a tinge of accusation around the edges. He does so with a finesse that should make the Justice Lord's new information broker proud.  
  
It appears to be working well. The look of distrust wavers briefly, before slipping right back into place. The part of Dick that is terrified of letting Bruce down competes with the part of Dick that wants nothing more than to have Roy _not_ believe his deceit. "You're right," Roy agrees. "I don't believe you. You've given me plenty of reason not to in the past four months. Ever since. . ."  
  
 _//Wally's death.//_ That's when everything had changed. But Roy doesn't mention their fallen comrade and Dick won't dwell on the look of Wally's disapproval he sees every time he closes his eyes. "I miss him, too, Roy."  
  
"He'd never have agreed to what the League is doing." Roy grips the bow more tightly and Dick can hear the weapon groan beneath Roy's fingertips.  
  
Dick doesn't know if Roy is right. But Dick tells himself that Wally _would_ understand the lies Dick is currently feeding their teamm- _former_ teammate. After all, if Barry had ever depended upon Wally the way that Bruce is depending on Dick right now, surely Wally would have done the very same thing.  
  
 _//No.//_ "They're not called the League anymore," he says softly.  
  
Roy's eyes narrow. "I know. The Justice _Lords._ Watching over us. Deciding our fates. Who lives. Who dies."  
  
It sounds so very sanctimonious- just like Oliver Queen. Why can't Roy see that what Bruce and the others are doing is going to save lives? Why can't he see that the Justice Lord way is the _right_ way? Why can't he see that doing the right thing isn't always easy?  
  
 _Dammit. There's more to being a superhero than wearing a bright costume, Roy._ But it's far too late to say any of that now. Maybe he should have tried harder back when the original split had occurred. . . if he'd been a better friend, he could have wrangled Roy from the poisonous propaganda of Green Arrow.  
  
The belief that he could have somehow prevented this from happening makes it easier to force the quiver into his voice. "I know, Roy."  
  
"What could ever make you believe that Big Brother shit, Dick?"  
  
"Batman," he answers. It's the only truthful thing Dick has said to Roy since the conversation began.  
  
Roy snorts and pulls the bow a fraction tighter. "Of course. That's just like you. Always wanting to live up to the Big, Important Bat. Never crossed your mind he might be wrong, did it?"  
  
 _No._ "I didn't want to disappoint . . .the man who raised me," Dick says steadily. _Just like you can't disappoint Green Arrow._ "Surely you can understand that."  
  
It's the first of Roy's buttons that Dick is planning on pushing, and works exactly as well as Dick thought it would. The bow actually lowers a fraction of an inch. It's enough that if Dick was planning on attacking, he could have.  
  
He doesn't attack. . . _exactly._ But in a way he does, because the words he says next are as calculated as any movement he's ever taken in battle. "I know I made a _mistake. . ._ and I know that _mistake_ is one you can probably never forgive." He emphasizes the word "mistake," just like he and Oracle had practiced and he lowers his gaze right on cue, to give the illusion of all encompassing guilt, just like Batman had instructed.  
  
But before his gaze comes to rest on the ground, he sees that pushing the second button is successful. The look on Roy's face is a mixture of recognition, guilt, and regret. Dick knows his former frie- _enemy-_ is thinking of a cramped bathroom, heroin withdrawals, and a friendship that neither of them had ever believed would end at a stalemate in an empty alley.  
  
When Roy speaks again, his voice is low enough that Dick has to strain to hear him. "What made you change your mind?" Frustration and disbelief are still evident in Roy's voice, but they're marred by a hopefulness that tells Dick he has won the battle.  
  
 _Batman will be proud._ "They wanted me to torture someone," he says quietly, still thinking about the man's final words before Donna had slit his throat. _Babies, babies, babies. . ._  
  
"You couldn't do it," Roy surmises. Roy's voice is full of confidence that his body doesn't quite display.  
  
"No. It was one thing to watch. . . but to actually torture. . . "  
  
"You could never do it."  
  
"No." But he _had_ and Batman had been there the whole time. _Batman had been so proud._ It had been Dick's work on that mission in particular that had convinced both Bruce and Clark that he was ready to be trusted for this mission.  
  
The rest of the Lea- _Lords_ \- had their doubts. But Dick _wouldn't_ let Batman down.  
  
"You could never _torture_ someone," Roy says firmly. Dick's not sure if Roy is talking to him or to himself, but that's not really important. What _is_ important is the final touch on his act.  
  
"I'm so _sorry,_ Roy." _Sorry that things have to end this way._  
  
The bow is completely lowered. "I always knew you'd come around, Man. Everyone else-" _The rest of the rebels "_ -didn't believe it, but I did."  
  
There's a hug, during which Dick carefully slides the bug into Roy's hair. The science is complicated, and Dick honestly doesn't care, but he knows that the oil in Roy's follicles will combine with something in the bug to make it undetectable by any scanners the rebels use. Roy's hands clasp and grasp at his back, and Dick remembers long, sticky summers in Titans Tower in rooms that smelled of sweat and . . .  
  
"The others. . . they probably won't be too receptive at first," Roy says, ending the hug that Dick doesn't want to ever end.  
  
"I don't care about the others." _You're the one I'll miss._ "I just want us to be partners again." _I wish it wasn't too late._  
  
Roy smiles and Dick has to focus on Batman because that toothy grin is the same one he's seen a million times before above, below, and beside him. "I gotta go - Ollie worries when I don't check in by a certain time. I'll see you. . . maybe tomorrow we can patrol together? With you on our side, we can really do some damage to the Lords."  
  
"I'd like that."  
  
Dick watches that red and gold costume fade from sight, unable to move. He's still standing in the same spot, hoping Roy will come back, two hours later, when Batman contacts him to let him know that the mission was successful.  
  
Except Bruce doesn't sugar coat it like that. "The rebels are dead," Batman says into his ear.  
  
 _Roy. Roy is dead and I killed him._ "That's great." Short answers are the best. Batman is the world's greatest detective and Dick doesn't want him to have reason to be _disappointed._ Especially considering the lengths Dick went to tonight.  
  
"The kid is fine." Lian - Dick's one stipulation. _She can't possibly be fine. You've lost your parents. How can you think she's fine?_  
  
"She's with Wonder Woman?"  
  
"Yes. She'll have to be reconditioned."  
  
Lian was still young. There was time to cleanse her of Ollie's - _and Roy's -_ brainwashing. "Of course. I take it the Lords are pleased?"  
  
"Yes. And, Dick, I'm very proud of you."  
  
Those are sacred words that Dick has rarely heard and he expected them to mean far more than they do. But though he clings desperately to them with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to a raft, he can't help but think that they aren't nearly enough to justify what Dick has done.  
  
When he closes his eyes to stall the tears that want to spill, Roy's face joins Wally's in looking at him with disapproval.  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ten years later, Lian has a score to settle.

When the news first reached Dick, it came from Batman himself. He called both Nightwing and Oracle to the Bat Cave and calmly explained "the situation" to them. The Justice League from an another universe had conveniently appeared and alternate Batman had swayed Bruce into betraying The Lords, who had had their powers taken away and were currently locked up and in need of constant supervision. 

Bruce had actually asked them both at that point whether they were still with him. Despite the hysterical laughter that wanted to spill forth, Dick hadn't hesitated. He'd always been with Bruce, although he'd never been given a choice in the matter before. In retrospect, it was probably in that moment, as Bruce hugged him and again granted his approval and pride, that the last remaining bit of Dick's sanity began to crumble.

It was at that point that Dick didn't have to close his eyes anymore to see Wally and Roy's stares of disapproval.

However, despite the increasing amount of taunting that Roy and Wally were doing inside his head, Dick was able to continue the pretense of being sane for a full additional week. When he took over watch guard duty from Oracle, he was still completely devoted to carrying out the mission in Bruce's name. 

He might have continued to be equally devoted, if the cells containing the former Justice Lords had been sound proof. But because they were not, Dick was forced to endure the familiar verses of Wally and Roy in his head with Superman providing a brand new chorus in the background.

"Well, well. If it isn't Dick Grayson."

//Do you remember when you revealed yourself to us, Dick?// Wally's voice questioned.  
//We remember, Short Pants. You called us your friends.// Roy's voice answered.

He tried to ignore Wally, Roy,and Superman.

"I'm a little surprised to see you here, Dick," Clark continued. "After that little display with the rebels last November, I thought your devotion to our cause was sealed."

//Last November. That was when you killed Roy.//  
//That's when you made my daughter an orphan.//

"But I guess it wasn't the cause you believed in. I guess it was Batman." 

//You took me away from my daughter for Batman?//  
//You know what it's like to be an orphan, Dick. How could you?//  
//Batman is my family.// Dick argued with Roy and Wally. //Both of you have to understand that.//  
//The Titans are a family.//Roy reminded him. //You abandoned us, but couldn't bring yourself to do the same to the God Almighty Batman?//  
//We never hurt you the way he did.//Wally chimed. 

"What's that like, Dick? To kill your former teammate for a cause your mentor decides to abandon?"

Wally and Roy started to chime in, and Dick shook his head in an attempt to clear it. //Please go away.// He begged them silently. To Clark, he turned and snidely remarked, "I imagine it's no more uncomfortable than having all of your God-like powers ripped from you."

Clark remained unruffled. He merely smiled at Dick. "Do you suppose little Lian will feel the same way? When she grows up, do you suppose she will understand why the man she called 'Uncle Dick' was responsible for killing the man she has memories of her father loving?"

//Do you even still have those memories, Dick?// Roy asked as Wally shook his head and murmured about poor Lian.  
//Please stop.//   
//I bet you don't, but I do. At least, I did. Not just the memories Lian has of almost chaste sofa kisses but memories of long, hot summer afternoons in the Titans' Tower when we had fucked so much that we weren't sure if it was the heat or our own exhaustion that made us pass out?//

"Please. . . " Dick began but then shook his head again. //Aren't real. Aren't real.//

"Please? Why, I vaguely remember more than a few of the rebels saying when we invaded their headquarters. The headquarters you help us find."

//Do you remember, Dick? Do you remember nights spent trying to be quiet so no one else would hear us? Do you remember holding me in the bathroom of the Tower, promising that as long as I held your hand everything would be okay?//

"Stop."

"Yes," Clark continued, unaware that Dick wasn't speaking to him at all. "We definitely did hear that." 

//Did you know that the image of you holding my hand is the one I took with me back to headquarters? Do you know it's the image I had in my head as I was happily explaining to the others -//   
//The others that you killed.// Wally chimed.  
//-that you had joined us? That you had joined me?//

"Please. . . stop. I can't. . . "

//You can't what?//Roy's voice.  
//There's still plenty you can do.//Wally's voice.  
//After all, you're still alive.//Roy's voice.

"Was it worth it, Dick?" Clark asked. "Was your unfailing Bat worship worth killing your friend for now that the cause has been deemed unworthy by dear old Bruce?" 

//Was it, Dick?// Wally and Roy both looked at him expectantly - Roy with indignation, Wally with pity. 

"No. . . please stop." 

//Was it worth betraying the trust of the man who loved you?//  
//Was it worth betraying my daughter?//  
//Was it worth making her an orphan, like us?//  
//Was it worth destroying the last remains of The Titans being a family?// 

The voices all melded together, along with Superman's continued taunting and Dick grasped his head in frustration. "No.No.No! I can't. Just please stop it!"

Later, when Batman and Oracle came to investigate the alarm coming from the jail, they discovered six empty cells. They also discovered Dick curled up in a ball screaming, begging, pleading, and apologizing to the thin air.  
^^^^^^^^^^^^  
**Ten Years Later.**

Like most teenage girls, picking the exactly right outfit for the occasion was very important to Lian. She knew that the costume she picked needed to pay homage to her father first and foremost, because it was in his name that she was seeking vengeance. But Lian also knew that snuffing out the ideology of Green Arrow had been just as important to Batman and Nightwing ten years ago, when they had taken both men out of Lian's life forever. 

In the end, she chose her father's colors for her costume and Green Arrow's colors for her bow. As she walked out of her bedroom, she gave one last distasteful glare at the Robin costume that laid on her bed. When Wayne got back from trying to track down the newest devotees to the Church of Kal-El, he'd be sure to see it, and Lian briefly wondered how long it would take the old man to figure out what it meant. 

He wasn't as sharp these days as legend had him being in his youth. Maybe his heart condition was affecting his brain. Regardless, Lian supposed he'd be able to put two and two together by the time the report of Dick Grayson's death report came from Arkham. Lian almost wished she could stick around and watch the realization dawn on the man's face. 

Almost. 

Walking out into the air on her way to the pretty little asylum on the hill, Lian felt as though she were letting go of a breath she had been holding since she had been five years old. Freedom pounded in her veins and determination throbbed in her throat as she used every bit of her Robin training to break into Arkham's security system.

The irony wasn't lost on Lian. A shadow of a happiness that hadn't crossed Lian's face since the day Wonder Woman had carried her screaming form away from the exploding building that held her father danced briefly across Lian's features. 

She'd been to Arkham before, of course. She'd accompanied Batman on more than one case, and each time she came, she was annoyed at the relative quietness of the facility. With one or two obvious exceptions, the idea of the hallways ringing with screams of the tortured was a silly little stereotype without any basis in reality.

Happily for Lian, Dick Grayson was one of those little exceptions. Even if she hadn't memorized his location in the asylum from Batman's files, his rantings and screams would have led her directly to his room.

Lian was rather pleased with his screams. According to Batman's records, Grayson's craziness had been pretty vocal for the past ten years. She considered, as she unlocked the door, that given the level of monster that was hiding within, being sentenced to an eternity of his own imagination was the perfect punishment. Well, in addition to the punishment she was about to inflict. 

Dick looked up when she opened the door. Though Wayne's files had stated that the first Robin hadn't spoken to anyone since he'd lost his mind, she received a look of recognition. "Lian?"

His greeting. . .threw her, but only for a moment. Ignoring him and not bothering to step any further into the room, Lian drew her arrow. Grayson didn't bother to try to move as she took aim and released.

As the arrows pierced first his jugular then his aorta, Lian swore she heard him whisper, "Green."

She was more than a little angry that he'd fixated on the color of her bow alone. Irritated, she turned to leave, knowing that even if Grayson didn't understand the reason for his death, Batman would. Batman would know that she had killed Dick out of revenge for killing her father, and Batman would understand that Lian had allowed Batman to live so that he could spend the rest of his life mourning the loss of the one person he'd loved most.

She was merely returning the favor Batman and Dick had done her ten years ago.  
******  
Green. Lian's eyes were green. Dick didn't remember them being green.

//They're not.//Roy's voice, far gentler than it had been since that fateful November day, told him. //They're brown. Just like her mother's.//

No. They were green - just like Roy's. Those green eyes of Lian's had been the last thing Dick had seen clearly before her well aimed arrows had hit him, claiming the revenge she no doubt deserved. Everything was . . . fuzzy and off center now.

//She has great aim, Roy.//  
//Shh, Short Pants. Just close your eyes.// Roy's voice.  
//Come join your family.//Wally's voice.

This time, when Dick closed his eyes, neither Roy nor Wally were looking at him with disapproval.  
*****


End file.
